


Old whispers

by tveckling



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Human Outsider, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 13:58:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12277980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tveckling/pseuds/tveckling
Summary: In the Void there are no nightmares, but the Outsider isn't in the Void any longer.





	Old whispers

Jagged cliffs. Floating darkness, deeper and more impenetrable than he had ever experienced. He tries to move, but his body is chained to the cold stone. The faces are all around him, their chanting drowning out his feeble attempts at crying for help. The blade is above him, raised and in position, and he tries to struggle, tries to get away, but his hands are stuck, and he can’t move. The blade falls, both too fast to follow and too slow to miss, and he can’t breathe, his mouth is filling with blood, and he tries to cough but there’s only blood, more and more and more, he can’t breathe, there’s tears in his eyes he thinks and he gasps but there’s only more blood, he feels as it runs down his neck, down the stone, and he knows this. He knows. He knows what’s supposed to happen, he longs for it, because after the Void fills him up at least he can breathe again, but there’s nothing. Nothing but blood, and tears, and his attempts to breathe, and the blood runs down his face now, and the faces are all staring down at him, like stone masks, he can’t blink, he can’t turn away, there’s blood and he can’t breathe and he can’t move and he can’t-

“Easy!”

His eyes flew open, but it took several seconds before the Outsider could see the differences between the endless darkness and the soft tones of Corvo’s bedchamber lit up by candles. Longer still before he managed to get himself to breathe normally, held tight by a concerned Corvo who kept murmuring reassurances that the Outsider couldn’t understand. Not yet. He was too busy realizing that he could breathe, that there was no blood in his mouth, that he wasn’t chained down.

“It’s okay, it was just a nightmare,” Corvo murmured into the Outsider’s hair while the Outsider tried to will his fingers to unclench from around Corvo’s arms. “I’m here, you’re safe. Nothing will harm you here. It’s okay.”

“I was not aware dreams were so- intense,” the Outsider muttered, frowning at how hoarse his voice sounded, even to his own ears. 

Corvo must have somehow acquired the ability to read his mind, because when he leaned back to look the Outsider in the face he said, “You were screaming. Or, trying to. It was as though there was something blocking the sound.”

Blood, so much blood, no matter how wide he opens his mouth he can’t breathe for all the-

“It was just a nightmare,” the Outsider echoed Corvo’s earlier words, finally getting his hands to move. “Just a nightmare.”

He carefully avoided looking up at Corvo’s face, instead studying his hands. They were shaking, and he couldn’t for the life of him understand why. He had seen countless humans be affected by their dreams, pleasant or terrifying as they were, but for all he had watched he couldn’t truly understand it.

“You’re a human now. Humans have nightmares. It comes with the deal, I’m afraid.”

The Outsider looked up at Corvo’s crooked smile. There was nothing hidden there, no sneer in the back of his dark eyes, no mocking in the corner of his lips. He was still holding onto the Outsider, his touch somehow bringing with them a sense of stability, of relief. With a sigh the Outsider leaned forward, pushing up against Corvo.

“It’s just something I will have to learn to live with then, I presume?” he said, his breath hitting Corvo’s neck.

Corvo held him tighter at that, possessively, protectively. “You won’t be alone,” he promised.

The Outsider stayed quiet for some seconds, feeling the last of his shivering slowly die out. But there was still the unease. “I’m not sure I especially want to go back to sleep just yet.”

“Then don’t. I’ll stay up with you for as long as you need. I still have nightmares too, sometimes, about Jessamine and prison… about Daud.” Corvo’s voice was low, so soft it was almost hard to hear, and the Outsider’s heart ached.

“Tell me about them?” he asked, not entirely sure why, and even more surprised when Corvo did.


End file.
